A Perfect Anniversary
by Sakusha
Summary: Ever make plans,only to have them fall apart? Ever have a really bad day? Duo planned out the perfect Anniversary. Too bad luck wasn't on his side.1x2


Warnings:Terrible no good lousy bad day. Oh, and bad words too. 1+2

Special thanks to Ellimaru**

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**A Perfect Anniversary **

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It was going to be absolutely perfect.

I planned it all out. From breakfast in bed that morning, to the candle lit bath that night. Special plates for dinner, and a menu that would make Wolfgang Puck green with envy. I had a couple ideas forplaces we could go, and I even invested in a city guide, just in case those fell through. I was going to make our second anniversary a day Heero Yuy would never forget.

Why our second? Our first year of being together was right after the war, so we were still at that stage where any day we didn't get shot at was a special day, as far as we were concerned. But now we were far enough into peace to really enjoy things. I really wanted this anniversary to be spectacular.

With everything in place for the morrow, I went to bed with great excitement for the day to come.

It started with a phone call. A four in the morning phone call. Had I still slept with a gun, it would not have fared well for that particular piece of electronics. The most I could do was throw the pillow over my head and will the ringing to go away. It did. When Heero answered it. I could have kicked him for that.

"Yes." Pause. "Yes." Pause. "I'll be right there."

It was those last words that got me to wake up enough to realize that it was Preventers HQ that called. Only Heero's partner, Wufei, or Une, the good commander herself, had enough guts to call our home this early in the morning. I tossed the pillow at Heero as he hung up the phone. I felt some satisfaction as it hit him squarely in the back of the head.

"Happy Anniversary to you too," he said, rolling back towards me. He leaned over and kissed me on the lips. In turn I gave him a sour stare.

"So you do remember, then," I said, grumpily.

"Yes, of course I remember, love." Then he paused, and I knew he didn't want to go; whatever they told him, it had to be really important. "They got him."

He didn't need to tell me anything else; I understood. Heero was working on a class three case. He couldn't give me the details, but the suspect he'd been pursuing had gone underground. There were time pressing issues and if they had finally found this guy, Heero had to get down there.

"No shit?" I'm not very articulate at four in the morning.

"Big shit," Heero said, rolling in the opposite direction. He climbed out of bed and stretched, giving me a great view of his well-toned ass, before heading off to the bathroom.

"I'll be back by noon and I'll make it up to you," he was saying through the open door. "You won't even miss me."

Guess it was breakfast in bed by myself. I stole Heero's pillow, since mine was on the floor, and threw it over my head. "Well...shit."

I am proud to say that I didn't pout. I am a man. Men don't pout. But I came seriously close to doing just that. For a moment, I considered ways to make him stay, until I realized I was being childish, and decided that I would make the most of it when he got back.

Heero had wanted me to stay in bed, but I wanted to see him out the door. He gave me a kiss that was a promise of things to come. He told me he loved me, he was sorry, and that he'd make it up to me. And then he left.

I lay back down for a few minutes, but I couldn't go back to sleep. By six o'clock I stopped trying and decided to get back up. I tried to think of Heero being gone this morning as a minor inconvenience. When he got home, he would most definitely make it up, and we'd have the rest of the day together. So, trying to play the optimist, I looked for ways to make this work in my favor.

There was one thing that I'd wanted to do that I hadn't gotten done previously. I'd bought Heero a watch for our anniversary. It was both a gift and an apology of sorts. You see, just after the war, Heero had taken to wearing a gold watch. It had a little diamond in the middle of a black face with Roman numerals and it didn't do anything but tell time. The thing just wasn't him, and I couldn't imagine him buying something like that, but after some time, I'd forgotten to ask where the hell he'd gotten the thing.

It was at one of Quatre's gatherings, about six months ago, that I'd found out where it had come from. We were getting ready to leave when Relena graced us with her presence. I got a polite "Hello", whereas Heero got a hug. Nothing new there, but when Relena pulled back she deliberately let her hand run over Heero's wrist.

"Oh, Heero, you're wearing the watch I gave you," she said, pulling the sleeve of his coat up a little. "It looks nice on you."

"Yes, um... thank you, Relena." Heero looked a bit embarrassed, so I saved him from her attentions.

"So it's _you_ I have to thank for making sure Heero gets home on time. I'm very grateful to you." I said it with a grin, but I stuck my claim where it belonged. Relena and I have come to an understanding over the years; she doesn't step on my toes and I won't cut hers off. It's been working out quit nicely.

"Yes, well...you're very welcome. I hope you two have a good evening." She dismissed me without even a look, nodded to Heero and headed off to find someone else to stalk.

I tried not to look too smug as she made her exit. I'm usually not such a possessive bastard, but she tends to bring it out in me.

Later that night, in the privacy of our home, I staked my claim out again. We hardly made it to the bed. We were both in need of a shower afterwards, and I pulled him in with me, not particularly mindful that he was still wearing the watch. Turned out, it wasn't waterproof. I felt a little bad about the watch, but not overly so; I wasn't quite sure that the thing didn't have a GPS in it somewhere.

So I decided to replace the watch as a gift. I wanted to get something nice, but practical. I searched high and low for just the right one. It was made of titanium, instead of gold, and did everything but wash the dishes. It was classy, practical, _and_ waterproof to boot. I was quite proud of my selection. I had wanted to have it engraved, but I hadn't had the time to get it done. Well, now I had the time.

Stores didn't open for hours still, so I had a small breakfast of orange juice and toast. It was a far cry from the breakfast in bed that I'd planned, but I didn't seem to be as hungry without Heero home to share the meal with. I went online and found a place inside the mall that did engraving onsite. I cleaned up, set candles in the bathroom for later, got some bills done and generally wasted time until I thought the mall would be open. Then I pulled my gift out from the closet and unwrapped the box so that I could take it with me.

If I hadn't gone around the back of the car to get the morning newspaper, I wouldn't have seen the flat tire. But I did, and there it was, and as much as I wanted to wish it away, it didn't go anywhere. Peachy. Now I had a flat tire to fix, and an engraving to get done before noon. Flat tires never show up when you have nothing to do, but if you have something that is time pressing, there they are, ready to put a damper on your plans. So I put the rinky-dink donut tire on and made my way over to the mall in the hopes that I would come across a tire place and take care of both at the same time. Luck was with me as I found a tire store just across the street from the mall.

Now here was where I made the first of many mistakes. I had thought, considering my morning, that nothing else could go wrong that day. Stupid me. That was just asking for it. My second mistake was paying Billy Bob (yes, his tag actually said 'Billy Bob') to change out a tire I could have done myself on any other given day. I gave him a size, and he told me what he had. I picked out something that was similar to the other three tires. He quoted me a price twice of what it would have been if I had done it myself, but at the time I just wanted to have it done by the time I was finished at the mall so that I could go home and be ready for Heero's return. I signed my name with a little guilt at spending so much; such was the price of not digging grease out from under my nails on this special day.

I walked across the street to the mall and went hunting for the jewelry store that I'd found online. It was a big mall, so I looked at the directory first, so as to not waste time. I scrolled down the row of stores until I found the one that I needed. I was on the wrong floor. I took the stairs to the third floor only to find that the store that I wanted was not open. It didn't look like it was going to be open anytime soon, either. On top of the locked metal roll down door was a sign that said 'Remodeling.' Just what you remodel in a jewelry store, I don't know, but now I had a problem.

I didn't have to get the engraving done, I really didn't. I had been ready last night to give the watch to Heero the way it was. But the more I thought about it, the more I really wanted to do it. I had my heart really set on it. So I went to every jewelry store in the entire mall trying to find someone to get it done. A jeweler must make a hell of a lot of money, because apparently they only work one day out of the week. And of course today was not that day, in any one of the nine stores I visited. I could buy an array of fancy items, but if I needed it to be sized, cleaned or engraved, I would have to come back some other time.

Disappointed, I finally gave up. I was on my way out when I noticed that between cell phone kiosks, those little non-stores in the middle of the mall, there was a small jewelry store that I had overlooked. Actually it wasn't much more than a stand, but what caught my eye was that it advertised engraving.

The stand offered little more than bracelets and rings and was manned by a lone teenage girl who looked like Dracula's bride. Black hair, black eye makeup, black lipstick, and black nail polish. Powder white face. Creepy.

"Hi there," I said, trying to get her attention. "I need to get this engraved. Do you do that?" Yeah, I know what the sign said, but she didn't look like she did anything but scare customers away, so I had to ask.

Vampira gave me look that said, 'What do ya think, moron', but she handed me a form to fill out. Then she took a look at the watch I'd put on the counter.

"I can only twelve spaces on this, with this font," she told me, pointing out the kind of writing she would be using.

Already knowing what I wanted, I filled in the boxes on the form, counted the letters and handed it back.

"That's fifteen," she said, handing the paper back to me.

I re-counted, knowing I had not been wrong. "I only see twelve."

She rolled her eyes at me. "Do you want spaces in between the words?"

"Oh." Creepy girl was right. "Well, can you do a smaller font?" I asked hopefully.

"Sure," she said, sounding disappointed that she could. Then she took the watch over to what I assume was machine that did the actual engraving.

A few minutes later she came back, watch in hand, and gave it to me to inspect. It wasn't in the size or the font I would have preferred, but it read what I wanted: Heart & soul -D

I put the watch back in the box and got out my wallet. And that's when I saw the sign on the register: 'Cash Only'. I knew exactly how much money I had in my wallet, and it didn't amount to what was on the bill.

"I'm gonna need to get some cash. Do you know where I can find an ATM?"

With a dead stare, she told me to try the food court...and I would have to leave the watch.

When I got to the food court, two flights of stairs later, I started to realize how late it was. People were starting to gather for lunch. Instead of hoping Heero would hurry on home, I started hoping I could just beat him there.

There were two ATM machines. One was out of order and one had a very long line. When I finally made it to the front of the line, I saw a small plaque on top of the machine explaining the fees. I had to pay money just to use my money? Hell no. I got out of that line and into one of the snack bar lines. I could feel the minutes tick by as I waited. When it was my turn, I ordered a soda, asked for twenty dollars back, and handed the kid my card.

"I'm sorry sir, but you have to order a minimum of five dollars to use your ATM card."

"You have got to be kidding me." I withered and I could tell the kid looked sorry for me, but he didn't have any control over the store policy, so I ended up ordering the largest soda they had, and three apple pies. I was thirsty and I could take the pies to work, they made great snacks. It came out to just barely five bucks, but I got the cash that I needed.

I took a big swig of soda on the way back downstairs. It was flat. I threw it out. When I got back to the Jewelry stand, Vampira was on a lunch break, and Mr. How-the-Hell-Did-He-Get-This-Jobwas in her place. The guy was a complete idiot. He couldn't find that watch. He couldn't find the bill. He didn't know how to use the register, and he couldn't make change. Maybe my growling made him nervous. He finally got it together long enough to get me out of there.

I was so anxious to leave that place of torment that I almost ran. Almost. I was a good boy and used the cross walk to get back across the street...for all the good it did. Someone making a left turn decided he had the right of way. You don't argue with two tons of metal. I dodged the car, but dropped the watch box as I made it to the curb; it landed in the gutter. I snatched it up pretty quick, but the box was ruined. It had mud and gunk all over it. I suddenly wished that the day would start all over again. Or end very quickly.

Taking the watch out of the box, I was happy to find that it was, indeed, waterproof. I wiped it off with my shirt, and then, having nowhere to put the thing, slipped it on my own wrist. The box I threw away in a trash can as I entered the tire store.

'Billy Bob' didn't recognize me, even though I'd been there just two hours before, and had to go through the paper work to find my car.

"Says here that you bought a tire," he said, looking at the yellow slip on his clipboard. I resisted the urge to say, 'Duh, it's a tire store.'

"Yes, sir. Here ya go." I had my card out already. And yes, I did look first to make sure they took cards.

"Mister..." He had to look at the card to find my name...even though I'm sure he just read it on the work order, "Maxwell?"

In my head I counted to ten. Then very slowly, "Yes. I am Duo Maxwell."

"The tire you purchased is out of stock."

How does a tire become out of stock at a tire store? Beats me. What I really wanted to know is why he sold me a tire that was out of stock in the first place. But I couldn't seem to put that question into words without profanity.

"We tried to call your cell but you didn't answer."

I reached for my cell, fully intending to prove to the man that he hadn't called my phone because the damn thing hadn't rang all morning. That's when I realized that I hadn't brought it with me. I sighed in defeat. Could anything else go wrong today? Yes. Yes it could, it realized. Something could blow up or fall out of the sky. Or both, with my luck.

"Just put on whatever you have." I wasn't even going to ask what my choices were.

Billy Bob went to the computer and typed in a few keys. "We have a X3280, but it's a little more expensive."

"Figures." I couldn't quite keep that one to myself. I didn't say anymore and just handed him my card. I signed the receipt and put the card back in my wallet.

The seating area consisted of two hard plastic chairs, the kind that are hell to sit in, and a magazine rack, with no magazines. I decided to hold the wall up instead of killing my back and snacked on one of the apple pies. Turned out they were burnt and I ended up throwing the rest away.

It took another half hour to get my car back. When Billy had another lapse of memory and tried to charge me again, I wasn't surprised in the least.

You know what the icing on the cake was? To top off my oh so lovely day, I got pulled over not a block away from home, because the light was out on my left turn signal. The officer did a double take when he saw my license. My guess was that he wasn't a fan, cause he seemed to take great delight in handing me the ticket. Luckily, and I use that word loosely, he couldn't nail me for anything more than a pidly fix-it-ticket, which wasn't expensive, just annoying.

I didn't know whether to be disappointed or relieved to see Heero's car in the driveway. I was home. He was home. I should have been ecstatic. But the past few hours had tarnished my enthusiasm. It was well past noon. My gift was complete, but unwrapped. I was fighting off a headache and I was feeling very...grumpy. Grumpy was the right word. I'd use bitchy, but it had a female connotation that didn't suit me.

I sat in the car in the driveway trying to pull out some of that enthusiasm I had before the phone rang this morning and marveled at how things can go to shit in a surprisingly small amount of time.

Heero must have heard me pull up. He came out the front door looking very worried. Instantly, I felt bad that I hadn't used a pay phone to call him. I hadn't left a note, expecting to be back before him and I know he probably called my cell, which I didn't know I didn't have until just under an hour ago. He came home to an empty house on our anniversary. Damn. I couldn't feel more like a loser.

He held the door for me as I got out. "Where have you..." Then he took a good look at my face and rephrased his question. "...are you OK?"

I tried to put my disappointment away before he saw it, really I did, but he's always been so good at reading me. Instead, I tried for damage control. "I'm alright, Heero. I just had to go get a flat fixed and it took longer than I thought it would. Let's go inside and I'll make you lunch."

Heero's voice softened as he pulled me close to him. "Let me take you out somewhere nice."

I wrapped my arms around him. "Just take me somewhere nice...we don't have to go out."

"Now that sounds like a plan." Heero grinned and pulled away so that we could go into the house, his hand catching me by the wrist.

"Duo? When did you buy this?"

Shit. I realized that he was looking at the watch. I had forgotten to take it off. So much for surprises. Not for the first time that day did I want to kick myself.

Before I could answer, Heero gave me a look I couldn't quite describe and walked back into the house without me. I was so stunned at the abrupt change in his behavior, it took me a few seconds to follow."

I found him in the living room holding a white box. Thats when I realized that he wasn't mad; it was disappointment that I saw. And somehow I had put that look on his face. He handed me the box silently.

I looked at Heero, but he wasn't giving me a clue as to why he looked so hurt, so I opened the box. Inside, sitting on velvet lining, was a watch. The same exact watch I had bought for Heero.

It started out as a chuckle. I couldn't help it. Then laughter. And then, when I picked the watch up out of the box and turned it around, I came close to full-blown hysteria. He'd had it engraved; 'Heart and Soul – H'. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt. Heero wasn't quite so amused.

'I didn't know you had a watch already." His expression was somewhere between hurt and anger and I realized he probably thought I was laughing at him.

"I don't," I said, wiping the tears out of my eyes. Then I pulled the watch off my wrist and handed it to Heero. "Read the back."

It was Heero's turn to look puzzled. He took the watch from me and turned it over. His smile spread slowly until it turned into a full-blown grin. Then he chuckled along with me.

I put on my new watch with pride, knowing exactly how much work Heero had put into getting me a gift. He did the same and then he pulled me into a kiss that melted away the rest of any tension I had over the events of that morning.

The day wasn't exactly what I had planned. We ended up staying home the rest of the day. True to his word, Heero made up for his absence that morning. And then some. We ordered out, instead of making a grand dinner. Ate dinner on the couch, instead of using the dinning room, still set with special plates. My city guide became a coaster. We didn't take a bath or light the candles I left out, but the shower was, well...wow. It wasn't spectacular or overdone. It was just us, being happy with each other's company. And it was perfect.

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